Recording of the week: Footsteps on gravel

This week’s post comes from Steve Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary and Creative Recordings. The tape box in the image above measures 90 mm x 90 mm. Inside, as you can see, is a short loop of tape. This is one of nearly 300 similar items from the Bishop Sound…




Recording of the week: More than a headteacher

This week’s selection comes from Sandra Agard, Learning Facilitator. ‘More than a headteacher’ is how cousins Michelle Campbell-Davies and Rachel Clarke describe Betty Campbell, or Nan, as they knew her, in their chat recorded for The Listening Project to mark Black History Month in October 2021. Statue of Betty Campbell…




Chance patrons: Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and the pioneering age of British architectural history

On the work of historians of British architecture from the mid twentieth century to the present day




Recording of the week: One stormy night

This week’s selection comes from Jonathan Benaim, Audio Cataloguing Coordinator. Recordings of weather can give us a palpable sense of a time and place. When sounds from the surrounding environment are captured in a weather recording, we are able to imagine the scene, the totality conveying a cohesive sonic picture….




Covid-19 Testimony Project Database launch

Today, the British Library publishes a database of testimony collections that were created over the last two years, which document the UK’s experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this blog Lucy Pinkney, Covid-19 Testimony Project Researcher, writes about her work on the database. This illustration, created at the Centers for…